Picturesque Views in the Island of Ascension

The author and artist, Lieutenant William Allen, was a noted English explorer, abolitionist and naval officer. In the post-Napoleonic era, Ascension was used as a Royal Naval base for Great Britain's suppression of the slave trade in Africa. Allen served on the Niger expeditions of Richard Lander and Oldfield in 1832. He later served with Captain Henry Totter in the disastrous Niger expedition of 1841. Allen was also Fellow of the Royal Society.

The sketches from which the lithographs were made were drawn by Allen during a two month stay on Ascension, possibly while he recuperated from the rigors of the first Niger expedition.

10 lithographic plates, 2 of which are fold-out panoramas — all on India paper mounted after Barnard, drawn on stone by George Barnard or A. Picken, printed by Day & Haghe; each plate is accompanied by its descriptive text. Each plate with an accompanying text leaf. pp. [16];

Engraved topographical map of the island dedicated to 'Captain Bate the Commandant and the Officers of the Royal Marines, in Garrison on the Island of Ascension'.

Oblong folio, 28 x 38 cm.

References:

Scarce, not in Abbey or Tooley.